Alex Katz takes Paris

Oh, to be a muse. For the lucky Mrs. Katz, she has inspired an entire oeuvre of paintings executed by her husband, the American artist Alex Katz, who is currently being honored with an exhibition in Paris at the Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac (through February 14).

The show will include recent works that focus on fashion, one of the artist’s recurring themes.

“Fashion is dealing with the present tense and currents. Fashion is a no-no to people for whom the artist ‘creates beauty forever’- beauty is a constant factor and will always be there. It’s unstable when you get to fashion, because it changes. Nothing is stable,” Katz said.

That may be, but one constant about Katz seems to be his popularity with so many in the fashion crowd.

One reason for the positive reception is the ubiquitous presence in many Katz paintings of his wife Ada. His wife, described by one journalist as “petite, serious and perpetually well-dressed,” often appears is the single subject in the still portrait, and has taken glamorous turns posed in everything from a paisley headscarf under a blue umbrella to a pair of sunglasses to a little black dress.

Katz has also worked with fashion luminaries like Christy Turlington and Kate Moss but it’s the love for his wife Ada that strikes us as the most fashionable.